Supreme Court to hear Ram Jethmalanis plea on black money on February 19 The Supreme Court on Friday decided to resume hearing on a petition by noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who three years ago had sought bringing back Rs 70,000 crore black money which he claimed was parked abroad. When a bench comprising Justices H L Dattu, Ranjana P Desai and Madan Lokur commenced hearing, Jethmalanis counsel Anil Divan said the issue - taking out of $1.4 trillion (Rs 70,000 crore) from India and stashing them in banks abroad between 2001 and 2006 - was of immense importance to the country and could not be left hanging for years. Solicitor general Mohan Parasaran disputed the amount of black money but Divan said the first judgment of the Supreme Court had ordered the government to set up a special investigation team (SIT) and disclose the names of account holders in Liechtenstein Bank as had been revealed to India by Germany. He said the Union government had sought review of the 2011 judgment only relating to the SCs direction for setting up an SIT to investigate the black money but had not questioned making the information public, including names of account holders in Liechtenstein Bank supplied by German authorities. The Centres review petition had resulted in a split verdict, with then Chief Justice Altamas Kabir finding the petition maintainable and Justice S S Nijjar dismissing it. That is how the petition came to be posted for hearing before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dattu. The bench posted the matter for detailed hearing on February 19.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 07:59:45 +0000